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Rangers to honor All-Time Team, Nadel

Rangers to honor All-Time Team, Nadel

Rangers HOF news conference 13:34

Nolan Ryan and Jim Sundberg announce that Rangers broadcaster Eric Nadel will be inducted into the club's Hall of Fame

By Christian Corona
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MLB.com |

ARLINGTON -- The Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Weekend will include a luncheon on Friday to celebrate the 40th Anniversary All-Time Team and an on-field pregame ceremony on Saturday, when longtime radio broadcaster Eric Nadel will be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame. Saturday's game against the Tigers will begin at 7:30 p.m. CT to accommodate the ceremony.

The luncheon will take place at the Arlington Convention Center at 11:30 a.m. and will honor the 40th Anniversary Team, which includes 10-time All-Star catcher Ivan Rodriguez, all-time strikeouts king Nolan Ryan and a handful of current Rangers: Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton, Neftali Feliz and Nelson Cruz. Almost 65,000 votes were cast online in May to decide who would be on the team.

Multiple players were named to each position on the All-Time Team. Six-time Gold Glove Award recipient Jim Sundberg joined Rodriguez as the two catchers on the squad. As one of four players to hit 500 home runs and collect 3,000 hits in his career, Rafael Palmeiro and six-time All-Star Will Clark were the All-Time Team's two first basemen, while current Rangers Kinsler, Young and Andrus occupied the middle-infield spots. Five-time All-Star Buddy Bell and Steve Buechele were the squad's pair of third basemen.

Two-time American League MVP Award winner Juan Gonzalez, four-time All-Star Ruben Sierra, 1974 AL MVP Award winner Jeff Burroughs, Rusty Greer, Cruz and Hamilton made up the All-Time Team outfield, with Gonzalez and Palmeiro also being named as the team's designated hitters.

Four-time All-Star Kenny Rogers, who threw a perfect game in 1994, three-time All-Star and '71 National League Cy Young Award winner Ferguson Jenkins, 216-game winner Charlie Hough and Ryan made up the squad's rotation, while John Wetteland and Feliz were voted in as the team's relievers.

More than 40 former Rangers, including Nadel, are expected to attend the luncheon, which is sold out. The 40th Anniversary All-Time Team will be introduced on the field on Saturday evening, followed by Nadel being recognized as the 15th member of the Rangers Hall of Fame. Former Rangers on the anniversary team will be available for an autograph session on Saturday before being honored.

Nadel will become the fifth person to be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame in a "non-playing capacity," joining former manager Johnny Oates, former Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff, Nadel's former Rangers broadcast partner Mark Holtz and former Rangers outfielder and general manager Tom Grieve, who currently serves as one of the team's television broadcasters.

For the past 18 years, Nadel has been the lead voice on the Rangers' radio broadcasts and is in his 34th year of broadcasting with the team, making him the longest-tenured broadcaster in club history and owner of the second-longest active tenure, trailing only the Royals' Denny Matthews, who is in his 44th year.

Nadel has won the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Texas Sportscaster of the Year honor seven times, including each of the past three years, and has been recognized as the state's best play-by-play broadcaster by The Associated Press twice.

Nadel called Ryan's 5,000th strikeout in 1989, the Rangers' 30-run game in 2007 and the pennant-clinching Game 6s each of the past two seasons.

Christian Corona is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.